Sigh… why do nearly all the good shows have to air at the same day!? To illustrate, here is my blogging-schedule for the coming season, if the shows I watch subbed get released regularly every week:
Monday:
none
Tuesday:
nada
Wednesday:
– Suteki Tantei Labyrinth
Thursday:
nope
Friday:
– Baccano! (will be ending in two weeks)
– Ghost Hound
Saturday:
– Shugo Chara
– Saiunkoku Monogatari
– Dennou Coil
– Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
– Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji
– Shion no Ou
Sunday:
– Gundam 00
– Les Miserables
I think this shows enough. And I thought the five shows on Saturday for the previous season was a lot. In other words: expect this blog to be quiet during weekdays, and busy in the weekends. ^^;
Anyway, about the episode: something went terribly wrong with the outsourcing. There’s nothing wrong with the animation, the poses are as creative as you’d expect, with perhaps a low frame-rate, but the art style is completely different from last episode. The characters now look much more like an ordinary anime, unlike the rather unique first episode. Let’s hope the creators realize this.
Apart from that though, I liked this episode, even though it served mostly to build up. Shion has finally become a pro, it seems, despite her loss of the previous episode. Ayumi and Saori meanwhile develop a rival-relationship, so it could be interesting to see how the two of them are going to develop. Especially since Saori seems the most likely person to find out that Ayumi is actually a guy. I also liked how Ayumi, instead of being glad to have won, looked down on his opponent, who was clearly playing just for the fun. On the surface, you’d say that the guy was just playing for his mother, but something tells me that he also likes challenges and to take risks.
On other news, it’s going to have to play really weird if the stalker didn’t turn out to be the killer of Shion’s parents. Ayumi managed to save Shion at the end of the episode, and ever since, Shion’s been put under surveillance, though he does send a threat to the Shougi-club, that if she were to win, he’d kill her. Obviously, the owners didn’t show that note to Shion, but there’s more than just that stalker going on. Some suspicious undercover-journalists also get introduced in this episode.
Overall, this series is going to be short (only twelve episodes, if I recall correctly), but it’s going to be interesting to blog it. Despite this season being rather disappointing when compared to the other major series, it’s good to see that there are at least a handful of series that have the potential to become great later on. Let’s hope I chose to blog the right ones.]]>
Shion no Ou – 02
O_O. I haven’t even SEEN the raw file out yet. Do you like live in Japan or something LOL?
Well anyways I’m glad someone else is deciding to blog Shion no Ou. The manga was a great pleasure to read and the anime hasn’t disappointed. Though the anime art dropped DOWN from last episode? Sheesh. The manga art was so much better than the anime art from the first episode. Bad outsourcing indeed.
Now I’m going to wait for the raw to come out before making any comments on this episode -_-.
Basically, the guys who put the raws into torrents get these files from programs called Share and WiNNy. I use those programs as well. 😉
Why not delay posting on a couple of the Saturday shows to Monday or Tuesday?
o.O. Those programs nearly killed my computer. I’ll stick with torrents thank you.
A solid episode overall. The whole creepy stalker aspect is SO overplayed though, especially when compared to the manga. I can’t wait to see more of Shion and her mental toughness in the next episode. She’s one of my favorite protagonists ever.
Off topic but can you do me a favor and ask Hung for a series tag for Shion no Ou? I’d ask him myself but the only way is to like contact him on the forums and I don’t have an account because I’m not an admin. I’m assuming we’re both blogging this show so that should be enough for a tag..? Well I’d appreciate it if you can and thanks.
I’m still hopeful, but this show has so many bizarre elements that I’m on my guard. The Ayumi subplot tips it from “edgy” to “wacko”: A boy who cross-dresses to play shougi, in order to pay for “his mother’s operation” (*eyeroll*), who is discipled to Orochimaru. If all they had was murdered parents + shougi it would be a total win. The mother’s operation thing is so ludicrous I had to LOL. If he were just playing for money I’d respect him as a character a lot more. Doesn’t he realize there are far quicker ways for cross-dressing little pretty boys to make money? The cliché… it burns.